Inviting the Lord

"Stay with us, for the evening is approaching and the day has gone down. He went in to stay with them." Luke 24:29

Jesus never refused an invitation. He participated in the wedding of Cana. He agreed to eat at the table of Pharisees. He agreed to come to the bedside of a young girl who would die. While crossing Samaria, he stayed two days in Sichar at the request of the inhabitants (John 4:40).

On the day of his resurrection, he joined two disillusioned disciples who returned home to Emmaus. He approaches them and explains to them in all the Scriptures the things that concern him. If the disciples do not recognize it, it is because they lacked faith. They are approaching the village and Jesus acts as if he were going further. It is his way of acting. He goes further unless he is asked to stay, or even constrained. "They pressed him." By inviting Jesus to them, they will go from despair to the greatest joy. They recognize Jesus when he breaks the bread, but he immediately disappears, as if to give them all freedom to return to Jerusalem to share the great news.

When one moves away, Jesus brings us back by showing us the signs of his suffering.

"Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. And the other disciples said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them : "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, that I put my finger in the mark of the nails, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe it." (John 20, 24, 25). Thomas asked for evidence. Was it not like an invitation to Jesus to be manifested ?

Thomas does not yet believe, but he desires to believe, since he no longer stands apart from the other disciples.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and smite: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3. 20).

Jesus does not force the door. He calls. There is a door that we have to open, that of our hearts, when the Lord calls. Jesus said to me : "Would you have a moment for me ?" Will you open me now ? The latch on this door is inside. It is up to me to open it and to give it the place it wishes to occupy, that is, the first.

Source (To pleasing the Lord)